Nancy Holmes and Cameron Cartiere with award presenters at the 17th Annual NAPPC Conference

National Award for Border Free Bees Project places spotlight on work by Creative Writing professor Nancy Holmes

The Border Free Bees Project was chosen as the recipient of the 2017 Pollinator Advocate Award for Canada. Border Free Bees is a long-term public art initiative headed by Dr. Cameron Cartiere (Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design) and Associate Professor Nancy Holmes (UBC Okanagan), in collaboration with numerous strategic partners.

“I am really honored by this international recognition for our work in Kelowna and the lower mainland. The award is truly shared with our amazing volunteers and many community partners,” says Holmes.

Presented by the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, the Pollinator Advocate Award honours educational outreach resulting in increased awareness of the importance of pollinators and pollination. The Pollinator Advocate Awards, which are awarded to one recipient annually in Canada, the US and Mexico, support the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign’s goal to encourage environmental stewardship and to catalyze future actions that benefit pollinators.

The Border Free Bees initiative’s mission is to raise awareness of the plight of wild pollinators, empower communities to actively engage in solutions for habitat loss, and transform under-utilized urban sites into aesthetically pleasing and scientifically viable pollinator pastures.

Nancy and her partners have planned and created a number of projects that have invited hundreds of people, organizations and businesses in Kelowna who have enthusiastically jumped into learning about native bees and who are committed to creating and preserving habitat for them in backyards and public lands. To find out more about the variety and number of projects, visit: borderfreebees.com/projects

Nancy Holmes and Cameron Cartiere with their award

“I hope this spotlight on what we are doing in Kelowna can inspire other communities to take on pollinator advocacy in a big way. And make art and community while doing so!” says Holmes.

Additional information about all of the pollinator award winners from 2017 and previous years is available at pollinator.org/awards.

The Department of Creative Studies in FCCS is again hosting a series of workshops offering prospective students and other members of the community a chance to find out more about the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) visual arts program at UBC Okanagan. The opportunity also prepares participants to start their application package to the BFA program.

Creative Days

This fall and winter, we have an exciting lineup of  hands-on workshops:

• Saturday Oct 21 | 10am-1pm – with Aleksandra Dulic – Music of Heavens Animation using stop-motion techniques.
• Saturday Nov 18 | 9am-11am – with Katherine Pickering – Life Drawing from the Model
• Saturday Jan 13 | 12pm-3pm – with Fern Helfand – Photography – Lighting for Studio Portraits
• Saturday Feb 17 | 12pm-2pm – with Myron Campbell – Frame-by-Frame Animation
• Saturday Mar 17 | 10am-1pm – with Renay Egami – Sculpture: Mold Making & Casting
• Saturday Apr 21 | 10am-12pm – with Stephen Foster – Interactive Digital Media

Portfolio Day

Instructor Katherine Pickering viewing a student portfolio

In addition to the workshops, our Visual Arts faculty and upper year’s students are hosting Portfolio Day on Saturday January 13th from 10:00 am – 12:00 pm.

Portfolio Day is an opportunity to get advice on building an entrance portfolio and (or) obtain pre-approval for the portfolio requirement as part of the application to the Visual Arts BFA program at UBC Okanagan.

In each portfolio, students are asked to include 15 – 20 artworks or images, and (or) up to 3 short videos, which illustrate their best work while showing the range of media they have explored.

Students are also welcome to bring your original artwork whenever possible, including finished pieces, works in progress, and sketchbooks. Students may also present your portfolio digitally on your laptop.

Creative Days workshops and Portfolio Day are held in the Creative and Critical studies building at UBC Okanagan, 1148 Research Road.

Please RSVP for Creative Days and Portfolio Day to briar.craig@ubc.ca

WHAT: A Different Lens, exhibition by Cool Arts
WHEN: September 23 to October 6
OPENING: September 23, 1-3 pm
WHERE: FINA Gallery, CCS building, UBC Okanagan Campus

Join us for an exciting exhibition being held September 23rd  to October 6th at the FINA Gallery, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies building at UBC Okanagan. An opening reception will be held Saturday, September 23rd from 1-3 p.m.

The exhibit will feature 27 large photographs taken by Cool Arts artist members in collaboration with artist photographer and BFA alumna, Kelsie Balehowsky. Works in this exhibition feature compositions captured while on two excursions throughout Kelowna’s Cultural District.

Cool Arts Society is a local non-profit organization that provides art opportunities for adults with diverse abilities. For more information about Cool Arts Society or to find out how you can get involved, call or write to Rena Warren, Artistic & Programming Director, Cool Arts Society. info@coolarts.ca or 250-899-6381.

Living Things and the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies presents Falling Awake by Ragmop Theatre.

WHAT: Falling Awake by Ragmop Theatre (Vancouver)
WHEN: September 28 to 30, 6:30 pm (matinee Sept 30 @ 2:30)
WHERE: Bumbershoot Theatre, #125, 1295 Canery Lane, Kelowna BC

Living Things, Kelowna’s International Art Festival announces its 2018 program with a presentation of Falling Awake by Ragmop Theatre from Vancouver.  Falling Awake is a surreal physical comedy about a women and her deceased lover meeting in their dreams.

Falling Awake is this year’s Fringe Festival hit, winning awards across the country. It was called a “mesmerizing display of physical comedy” in Toronto’s NOW magazine; “breathtaking” from Theatre in London; a “must-see” from Montreal Rampage; an “all-access pass into dreamland” from the Edmonton Journal and received 5 stars from the Winnipeg Free Press.

Tickets available online through bumbershoottheatre.com

• Adults: $20
• Students (with ID): $15
• Children (14 & under): $10

Come and find out what LIVING THINGS has in store for 2018.

For more information go to livingthingsfestival.com or ragmoptheatre.com

left to right: Shona Harrison, Myron Campbell, Denise Kenney, Michael Treschow

Each year the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies puts a call out for nominations for teaching excellence and innovation, community engagement and service awards. The faculty in FCCS are some of the best on the UBC Okanagan campus, therefore it is no surprise that we were flooded with a number of nominations for faculty in each category.

This year’s award recipients are Shona Harrison (English), Denise Kenney (Performance), Michael Treschow (English) and Myron Campbell (Visual Arts).

These awards present FCCS with yet another opportunity to express gratitude for the contributions that advance our mission and the objectives of our faculty, and to shine the spotlight on those contributions.

The 2017 Teaching Excellence Award recipient is Shona Harrison. Shona received this award on the basis of student support and teaching evaluations. Her student’s note that with her teaching style, she has fueled their passion for English, and is a wonderful leader and educator.

The 2017 Teaching Innovation Award recipients is Myron Campbell for his work in the Intro to Digital Media course he teaches (VISA 106). Myron has created a suite of video tutorials that students find to be both useful and motivating. One student notes, “Myron successfully matched his innovative teaching method with a dedication to ensuring that those materials that he provided his students with were well understood.”

Michael Treschow is the recipient of the 2017 Service Award for his contributions to the Faculty and to the wider UBC community over the past six years as a twice-elected member of the Board of Governors. Michael’s contribution on the BOG is remarkable; after being Chair of the Board of Governors’ People, Community and International Committee (2014-2017), he is now wrapping up three years as the Chair of the Board of Governors’ Learning and Research committee.

The 2017 Community Engagement Award recipient is Denise Kenney. For the past several years, Denise has been tireless in her work in the community, making connections for her program, the Faculty, and her students, as well as doing original and challenging research with and for the community. Her service, teaching and research have always contributed to the region’s various NGOs and public institutions, as well as to her professional community.

To learn more about the FCCS Awards and the nomination process, please visit fccs.ok.ubc.ca/research/awards.html

Installation by Cultural Studies students Kezia Elaschuk and Safeera Jaffer at the Okanagan Wine and Orchard Museum

For the second year, the Cultural Studies program at UBC’s Okanagan campus is offering a course that focusses on community engagement, where students have the opportunity to work in collaborative teams to complete projects that support the work of community partners.

This year professor David Jefferess has set up partnerships with Sncəwips Heritage Museum, the Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society, the Okanagan Wine and Orchard Museum, the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, and Lake Country’s Municipal Planning Office, Museum, and Public Art Commission.

In this course, students will be able to work on research projects in the areas of heritage and commemoration, community outreach and engagement, and education towards reconciliation, with topics that include colonial history and Indigenous resistance/resilience, the history of water “management” in the region, Japanese-Canadian Settlement, public and natural art, and artist communities.

Students enrolled in the course last year worked on some interesting and informative projects that demonstrate the skills they developed and the positive impacts they were able to make with their community partners.

Students Tessa Baatz, Chiara Mason and Emma McLeod presented an idea to the City of Kelowna that examines the positive impacts of parking spaces that are reclaimed for public recreational or beatification purposes. Read more about PARKLETS: Innovations in Urban Public Spaces.

Kezia Elaschuk and Safeera Jaffer researched the experiences of early Chinese and Japanese agricultural workers in the Okanagan and presented their finding in an exhibition at the Okanagan Wine and Orchard Museum. Read more about this project.

This course (CULT 499) is designed to provide students experiential learning based on the skills and knowledge of Cultural Studies scholarship. As such, students will complete a tangible research project that will be publicly disseminated, and they will acquire specific professional skills and experience suitable for inclusion in letters of application, resumes, and/or curriculum vitae.

In order to enroll in CULT 499 Community Engaged Research in term two this year, students are required to submit an application that includes a resume, description of related skills and experience as well as a letter of interest. The deadline for applications is September 22, 2017.

For more information, please contact the course instructor, David Jefferess. david.jefferess@ubc.ca.